Monday, August 24, 2015

Adult Coloring Maps

Apparently adult coloring books are very popular now. In fact, at the time of writing, four of Amazon's top twenty best selling books of 2015 are adult coloring books.

Due to the popularity of this new craze the UK's Ordnance Survey has released a number of black and white maps which you can download and color to your heart's content. The Ordnance Survey Blog has created 11 maps (available as PDF files) which you can print out and then spend hours coloring-in.

Unfortunately your choice of maps on the OS blog is limited to a only a few UK towns and cities. If you want to color a map of your own location then you could use this Pencil map, which allows you to print out a map of anywhere in the world.

My advice is to download a Pencil map of your neighborhood and color in your neighbors' houses using the 'Charles Booth' coloring scheme. At the end of the Nineteenth Century Charles Booth created a poverty map of London. Booth colored in houses on his map of London based on the income and social class of its inhabitants.

You could use Booth's color scheme to create a colorful map which illustrates just what you think about your neighbors. Use black to color in the houses of your neighbors who you think are 'vicious or semi-criminal'. Use a dark blue color to show those in 'chronic want'. Red can be used for the 'well-to-do' and yellow for the 'wealthy'.

When you have completed your map be sure to add your name in bold clear letters. Then photocopy the map and post it up around the neighborhood so that everyone can enjoy your handicraft.